Gaza Strip: Missile Fire Destroyed Largest Hospital in Gaza City

Gaza Strip missile fire destroyed the largest hospital in Gaza City on Monday after the violation of a temporary ceasefire agreement from Israel officials. There are only a few hospitals left in the Gaza Strip, with most of them being privately supported by outside sponsors such as Europe and Indonesia, sources said.

The Shifa Medical Hospital is one of the most affluent rehabilitation centers in the Gaza Strip. The explosion landed on the street next to the facility, where a makeshift refugee camp was set up, killing at least 10 people. Meanwhile, Israeli officials denied targeting the hospital and alleged they were not responsible. However, they have publicly blamed “Gaza terrorists” for the deadly incident in Gaza Strip.

So far, most of the airstrikes by Israel has caused the deaths and injuries of several hundred innocent civilians. As a result, the majority of the more than 1,000 Gaza Strip casualties have all been women and children.

Last week, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) supposedly found out that Hamas militants were using an abandoned hospital as a military base. Additionally, it had also been disclosed that another full service hospital was reportedly rehabilitating Hamas soldiers injured in the military combat with IDF. As a result, IDF soldiers shelled both facilities wounding both civilians and Hamas militants.

Gaza Strip missile fire that destroyed the largest hospital in Gaza City is not a known terrorist enclave, yet many critics are wondering why Israel would target such a facility. Moreover, sources confirmed the other two hospitals were destroyed during an offensive ground invasion led by IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) observers were concerned with Israel’s poor treatment of Gaza Strip civilians during their bitter aerial war with Hamas militants. After Gaza Strip Health Ministry examiners determined 80 percent of the their casualties were civilians, HRW workers sought a petition with the United Nations (U.N.) to quell Israel’s attack.

HRW representatives said they were outraged by Israel’s total the lack of respect for innocent lives in Gaza Strip. They also petitioned for some of the top Israeli officials to be arrested for war crimes by claiming they had more sophisticated war technology than Gaza Strip.

Last week, in an action supported by Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the Prime Minister of Israel, IDF soldiers moved into the Gaza Strip and attempted to obtain security leverage. The strategy led to the first hard-fought combat ground battle since the latest conflict began many months ago.

On Sunday, sources stated hundreds of Israeli troops were stationed just north of the Gaza Strip border shortly before the mortar hit the Shifa Hospital. Recently, Israeli troops surrounded several tunnels throughout Gaza Strip that Hamas militant groups used as an army retreat. Evidence also shows that Hamas militants were using the tunnels as an underground passage to move across the borders of Israel and Palestine.

IDF representatives said they were closing in on the Gaza Strip in an effort to root out terrorists seeking to exterminate Israel. Nonetheless, Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has reached a new intensified level that is threatening the sanctity of the entire country.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government vows to continue their military campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Before missile fire destroyed the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, U.S. President Obama suggested if an unconditional ceasefire agreement is not mandated soon, the losses of lives will probably continue to soar into the thousands.

Israel is exercising its legitimate right of self defense. innocents die in war – always have and always will. If Israel stops defending itself it will be destroyed. If the Hamas seeks Peace there will be peace. Hamas does not want peace. It seeks the destruction of Israel. The deaths of helpless Palestinian innocents is on their hands not Israel’s.
Pray for peace!

BARBARIC is the only word to describe Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Israel’s military incursion in Gaza is shrouded under the narrative of its “right to defend itself”. However there is little doubt that this action of Israel has nothing to do with defence; it is plain and simple an act of hatred and evil aggression. One must therefore surmise as to the reason for this aggression. Is it a precursor for Israel’s desire to annex Gaza? Gaza is being reduced to ruins by the deliberate and systematic destruction of its vital infrastructure. Gaza’s morgues are filled beyond capacity with the gruesome images of decapitated children’s bodies; citizens rendered homeless roaming the streets in search of shelter and food. The destruction of hospitals, schools and public infrastructures is deliberate. History will record that the US is complicit in these attrocities by supplying Israel with the most sophisticated and lethal arsenal employed in this incursion; and most of all by its silence.
Cephas Keith Reyes, PhD.